On Sept. 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the formal impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s presidency as a result of his hidden, private communications with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. A day later, the phone call’s official transcript was released to the public.

“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it,” Trump said, then withholding a critical $391 million in military aid unless Zelensky agreed to investigate Joe Biden and his family.

At best, the White House has demonstrated its questionable ethics, using foreign connections in an attempt to sway the results of the 2020 election. In reality, what the United States is witnessing is a clear and corrupt abuse of presidential power, comparable only to Nixon’s Watergate scandal of 1972.

Trump has admitted to no wrongdoing, labeling the lawful impeachment inquiry as a “COUP” on Twitter, and suggesting that he is merely the victim of a leftist “witch hunt” – a phrase that has been incessantly thrown around since 2016. Yet, despite the administration’s efforts to undermine, delay and stonewall a probe, the simple, undebatable fact remains: Donald Trump committed an unlawful offense and should be treated with the same accountability as any other criminal.

Regardless of one’s political affiliations, everything indicates that the president’s impeachment is a nonpartisan matter. It comes down to the American ideal that nobody is above the law, yet according to the New York Times editorial board, Trump’s supporters “substitute loyalty to him for their patriotism itself.”

An impeachment inquiry is not, as the White House claims, “a coordinated smear campaign from far-left lawmakers and radical unelected bureaucrats waging war on the Constitution.” Rather, it is a non-negotiable and necessary process, both in principle as well as legality.

Suggesting that impeachment is injurious is absurd, the very foundation for removing an unjust president from office being Constitutionally ingrained. Moreover, any complaints regarding Pelosi or her procedures are founded upon misconception. Article I of the Constitution distinctly entrusts the House of Representatives with the “sole Power of Impeachment” and the right to “determine the Rules of its Proceedings.” In short, what this means is that the Trump administration cannot complain about fairness because fairness has never been guaranteed.

Of course, the president should have nothing to fear if his actions were correct, but as the country is now aware, they were not. On Oct. 17, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney even went as far as confirming the involvement of quid pro quo – the corrupt, typically illegal exchange of services often seen in extortion. Additionally, Trump expressed the audacity to transparently make the same request that got him in trouble with China, publically urging a second country to also investigate the Bidens.

The president is unapologetic, and it cannot be overstated how dangerous it is to leave a person so out-of-control in office without proper action, especially when that person’s primary tactics are deception and denial. The people cannot, as Mulvaney suggested, “get over it” because “it” is understandably and utterly wrong.

To liberals, conservatives, Republicans and Democrats alike, political exploitation – especially at the highest level – should be seen as a threat to national interest.